East Penn Parents Are Organizing To Fight Threat Of Teachers Strike

When the going gets tough in the East Penn School District, folks get organized.

When the district attempted to purchase a farm by eminent domain to build a new high school in 1989, up popped the Concerned East Penn Taxpayers Association.

When CEPTA-backed candidates gained office, returned the Lower Macungie farm to the Romig family and worked to cut costs, the Citizens for Children (CFC) rose to oppose them because it felt that education could be shortchanged.

But now East Penn is facing a possible teachers strike, and a new group has emerged to protest the situation.

The Committee of the Parents of the East Penn School District has been formed to keep teachers in the classroom.

Like CEPTA and CFC, CPEP is starting small -- with about 20 members.

"I'm a taxpaying parent, and I'm angry,' said Jim Pearson, an Emmaus resident who spoke for CPEP yesterday. "The school district gave teachers a good contract offer, and they turned it down."

Pearson said he was especially perturbed Friday night, when he attended an Emmaus High football game and heard from teachers that a strike was imminent.

If teachers do elect to strike, state law requires them to provide 48 hours notice.

Jerold Dougherty, president of the East Penn Education Association, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, the school board waits. The contract expired on June 30.

On Thursday, negotiators for the teachers were discontent after leaving a meeting with district officials. They set a special union meeting tomorrow to discuss options.

"Our offer is on the table," said Gus Martin, vice president of the East Penn School Board and spokesman for the negotiating team. "There is no indication of the union wishing to negotiate further until after the meeting."

The district offered a 4 percent wage increase for each of the next four years, and proposed a merit pay system beginning in 1994.

The teachers union's latest demand was for an annual 7.3 percent total increase.

The next bargaining session is at the call of mediator Leonard Kern.

"The economy is so bad right now," said Pearson, a laid-off Teamsters union member at The Stroh Brewery in Fogelsville whose 7-year-old daughter attends Jefferson School in Emmaus. "So why are they doing this?"

Mary Pat Fritz of the Pennsylvania State Education Association called the East Penn offer "significantly less" than the settlement in the adjoining Parkland School District, that gave teachers a 5.9 percent annual pay raise over four years.

"So they want to be just like Parkland now," Pearson said. "Parkland has put the pressure on other school districts. Today, teachers want the whole thing."

If there is a strike, Pearson said, his group will take action.

"We will hold a big meeting after the strike starts," Pearson said. "We are looking into legal action -- that's all I will say about it now."